Photos

Efforts to save lamprey

As long as Indians have lived in the Northwest, they have looked to lamprey for food. The jawless fish popularly known as an eel has steadily declined so that Columbia Basin tribes now have just a few places left to go for lamprey.

Tribes once harvested the lamprey from rivers throughout the Columbia Basin, which stretches from the Oregon coast into Canada. But with dozens of hydroelectric dams in the way, the fish has gone from being a food staple to a curiosity. Here, a tribe member tosses a lamprey, at Willamette Falls, in Oregon City, Ore.

According to Indian lore, the seven gill slits on the side of its head mark them as a food designated for the region's tribes. They correspond to the seven drummers and seven songs of longhouse ceremonies.

Kanim Moses Conner, left, and his brother Jonas Moses Conner with a lamprey at Willamette Falls. Unlike salmon, which have drawn billions of dollars in government funds to modify dams and restore habitat, the lamprey have gone largely ignored. The tribes that eat them are driving the effort to bring them back.

Tribal harvesters search for lamprey at Willamette Falls, in Oregon City, Ore. The greatest threat the fish face is the dams, which "will probably lead to their demise," said Aaron Jackson, who heads the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation efforts to restore lamprey.

Sterling Little Bull, of the Yakama Nation, floats in a pool at the bottom of Willamette Falls during the annual harvest of lampreys. The lamprey, whose English name comes from the Latin for "rock sucker," uses its mouth to glom onto rocks and other fish.

Tribal fishermen gather at the bottom of Willamette Falls during the annual lamprey harvest in Oregon City, Ore. They wade through water and pull the fish from rocks with their hands.

A youth stuffs a lamprey into a net at the Willamette Falls. Biologists have estimated that 1 million were crossing Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River in the 1970s. The number stands at about 20,000 now, said Bob Heinith, hydroelectric program coordinator for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

Based on an agreement with the tribes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working on ways to get lamprey over the dams without making it tougher for salmon, said David Clugston, a biologist for the corps. Adult lamprey have trouble with the fast water and sharp corners of fish ladders designed for salmon.